The crisp mornings that soften into warm sunshine, heavy showers, cool evenings and starry nights, are such a delight of autumn.  Although the prospect of winter ahead can be unsettling for many, we must make the most of these beautiful days, and all the colours they bring.

Rose Hips at Sun Rising

The cherry trees, guelder rose and field maples are all now turning, the shorter days and cold nights encouraging them to withdraw from their leaves, gently, slowly, quietly, settling themselves to rest.  If only we too, as human beings, knew how to sleep through the winter …

The colours of autumn are just starting to spread now, with the field maple at the entrance covered with russet and copper.  This photograph, taken by Claudia McHardy, of an extraordinary sunset at the burial ground, seems to take the autumn colours and set them alight in a way that warms the heart.  Thank you, Claudia.

Sunset at Sun Rising (Claudia McHardy)

This is a beautiful photograph I wanted to share, taken by Steve Sykes a month or so ago, of the pond at Sun Rising.  I love the clouds reflected in the water, but the emperor dragonfly is just beautiful.  The detail picked up by the camera is amazing.  Thanks for sharing the picture, Steve!

The Pond (Steve Sykes)

Another moth survey this week was carried out by moth man Alan Prior, whom we joined in the early hours of the morning as he emptied the traps and counted the little creatures who had made their way to the light traps.  I wanted to show you a photo of this beautiful fellow : a peppered moth (Biston betularia).

Peppered Moth

Look at the little stripy legs and the feathered antennae: what an amazing creature.  Some readers may remember it from biology class at school, as peppered moths are a species that showed the process of evolution.  Individuals became increasingly dark during the years of industrialisation and its pollution, until the wholly dark melanistic form (f. carbonaria) became dominant in areas of the north of England.  As our manufacturing industry declines, so the darker form is declining too.

Thank you, Alan, for the survey and the extraordinary photograph.

The meadow is humming with life at the moment – hoverflies and bees, and countless other creatures that I can’t identify, not to mention the mice and voles, butterflies and moths.  It is impossible to take a photograph that fills the soul with all the joy that the meadow does when we stand before it, breathing it in …

As we begin to mow the areas that have more grass than wildflowers, tidying up the burial areas, I realise that I am beginning to consider how the next month will flow, when the meadow will go to seed, and when we will cut it.  Like many, I am not nearly ready for that moment, still needing to inhale the beauty of it all, still bathing in the sunshine and colours of summer.

The Wildflower Meadow

The sound of lapwings is often heard at Sun Rising – a sound well worth listening out for (a YouTube clip of the sound can be found here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Te10HfbBycw).  We have an idea of where they are nesting, some years it is very close and others it is a little further away.  Their flight is as extraordinary as their song.

In this photo we caught one as it dived towards the pond.  It’s a poor quality picture, but you can just make it out, with its reflection in the water below.  Just beautiful.

Lapwing over the Pond with the Mown Grassland Behind

In this picture you can also see that we have mown the grassland at Sun Rising now, taking the bales off this week.  The site always looks a little awkward at this time, like a shorn sheep, but with a little rain it will green up and start to grow again.  We are also starting the long summer process of tidying up burial areas where there is little ecological biodiversity.  With the cutting of the hay comes the beginning of harvest …

The pond is a delight at the moment, with rushes and sedges, pondweed, cuckoo flowers and water mint.  There are a few irises coming through, the first of what may be many in the future, and on the bank the oxeye daisies, clovers, knapweed and other wildflowers are coming into bloom.  It won’t be long before the willowherb is in flower as well.  Countless little insects are flying over the surface of the water, and swallows are diving down, just touching the water, with wonderful grace.

Broadbodied Chaser laying Eggs

This is a female broadbodied chaser dragonfly that has been laying her eggs.  While the females are a bright sunshine yellow, the males are a brilliant sky blue.  We’ve seen a fair few around the pond, while the females seem to roam further at Sun Rising, coming up into the new woodland.

Here is a picture that, at first sight, looks like the naturally rather untidy side beside the step of the cabin at Sun Rising.

Beside the Cabin

But look closer and you’ll find a mouse, who has sneaked through the vegetation to munch on crunchy green dandelion leaves. He was so close to me when I took the photograph, I could hear his teeth on the leaf.

Mouse in Dandelions

And don’t miss the caterpillar. This is the larva of a drinker. Such a beautiful creature should evolve into an adult drinker moth within the next few weeks, but if you look even closer, you’ll see there is an egg on its back. It’s fuzzy blowing up the picture, but it is a little white circle a third of the way along, just by the yellow stripe. This may be a parasite, perhaps a wasp, which is sadly likely to turn this beautiful creature into food before he flies.

Drinker Caterpillar

April showers didn’t happen this year.  In fact, although the expression goes back centuries (some say to Chaucer), we often find that April is a dry month.  This year it was exceptionally dry, which has set back the blossom a good few weeks.  The first hawthorn flowers are beginning to open this week, in the blustery rains of May, and the first apple blossom too.

Crab Apple Blossom at Sun Rising

Thank you to David for this beautiful photograph of a crab apple at the burial ground planted as a memorial tree, the tender pink set against the wild dark grey of rain clouds.  You can see the wild service tree in the background coming into leaf too – that elegant tall straight tree, too seldom seen now in our countryside.